Thepfulhouvi Solo
My definition of a Theologian is: ‘A Seminary Student, who has got educated in the ideas of many past and present religious Thinkers -including his or her own- of God. This is a cumbersome definition and a more precise one is perhaps: A Theologian Is A Person With Revealed Ideas Of God. The Church in Nagaland in its simplicity is often easily deceived by esoteric ‘Spiritism’ masquerading as Spirituality; the young educated Pastor in the Church might have perceived the deception but often does not have the maturity to make a strong decisive stand to correct ‘weeds sown at night among the barley in the field’, for fear of displeasing influential members of the Church and thus become ineffective in leading the flock in the discernment of God’s will.
One young Pastor, in exasperation, told a conscientious member of his Church: “in our Church we can do nothing because of the rich powerful Members”. I have my own experience of seeing Pastors used almost as Pawns in a game of Chess by powerful influential members of the Church to capture their Queen, so much so that I once told Churchmen and young Seminarians: “if you want to seriously serve God, you better not become Pastor in a Church in Nagaland”
The Church in Nagaland is not effective in making any dent against corruption in the State because there is counterfeit corruption in the Church itself. Unintentionally, inadvertently, Unconsciously or ignorantly the Church has uncomfortably allowed a culture of formal Christianity not very different from the currents of the world, (giving glory to big financiers, giving decision making positions to the powerful, giving undue importance to Finance, attempting to be in the good Book of both God and Mammon, lack of discernment of the Will of God, lack of maturity in the decisions, lack of democracy in the decisions and many more the writer is not qualified to list them all) in the Church. The Church often seems to be interested more to magnify certain man than please God.
Many Churches in Nagaland behave arrogantly of the age of their Church and vaunt themselves of having celebrated Centenaries or such and such Jubilees but still seem to need Hebrews: 5 :12. -“Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word”. Christianity in Nagaland often appears so interested in modern new age liberal movement that we need revelation of elementary truths of the invisible God.
Maturity appears to be indistinguishable with lack of Reality. Twenty years after having gotten much seasoning of the Churches of Nagaland, one important Church Worker expressed great regret at having zealously nudged the Church Organization he headed into emphasizing economic wellbeing of the Church rather than Spiritual wellbeing and now that the Churches have become so wealthy but not so healthy; the contrite Leader felt guilty of his past economic promotion and asked pardon openly from the Organization.
I was present in the Meeting when in contrite Christian expressed his mistake honestly. For the hard benefit of all present, I stood up and said: “asking for pardon now 20 years after a vision has gone wrong for lack of discernment will not in anyway profit the Church now”. Church leaders must consider for Discernment, Maturity and Reality in the first place before leading the flock. The Holy Spirit guides his believers to distinguish right from wrong, truth from lies, good from evil, original from counterfeit, proper from improper: the priority of a Church Leader is to seek discernment from God before he or she ventures to lead.
In Churches across Nagaland, there is a tendency to erroneously take pride in size of the Budget or to arrogantly take the size of the Church as the standard measurement of Christianity. The Churches in Nagaland are in no mood to enquire the source of the Fund Anania and Safira lay at the feet of the Church. Anania and Safira today need no fear: there are no Pitors in the Churches in Nagaland today. No Pastor of any Church in Nagaland was ever heard to preach or inform the congregation to give only honestly earned donations to the Church and only unblemished tithes alone to the Church and Pastors would do well not to tell those who do not give Tithes as Thieves.
Church Organizations in the State have started asking for promise of Donations compulsorily from Guests after hosting them Dinner. I do not know whether such things are done in America or not, I have never been to America but in Nagaland Nagas never do such things. It is completely out of Naga Nature, Christians or not, to compulsorily ask Guests for Donations after giving them hospitality. The Church leader may justify himself by saying the Fund is not for his personal purpose but this is clearly a misuse of Official Position to profit his own Organization. Will Christians extort fund like this to help Non-Christian Organization?
A few weeks ago, Indian Cricket Team full of hope got severe unexpected beatings from the UK and the Australian Teams and a seasoned Australian Reporter commented Indian Cricket still seems to lack Reality. It is difficult to retire famous old players; Indian Cricket still depends n tired old bloods for world Cricket fame, there are great opportunities of fresh bloods for new combinations and strategies, but Indian Cricket do not seem to have changed. How true it is with Churches in Nagaland in its inability to differentiate duplicates from the original.
In spite of our many short comings, One of the greatest strength of the Church in Nagaland is its enthusiasm for the LORD and Oneness in Christ irrespective of the many denominations; a day would come when all will be just Christians despite the many Denominations. Nagas are so enthusiastic about Christianity the Grace of God would not separate us from Him.
“Oh, tell it from the Mountains,
Over the Vales and everywhere,
Oh, Tell it from the mountains”.
